Is this real?

Is this real or Hong Kong's version of Joshua Bell playing Bach's Chaconne in the subway experiment?

Bypassing the Great China Firewall

A friend of mine who is working in Shanghai seems to have unrestricted access to the Internet. Curious about it, I ask him how come he is able to update his Facebook and read Apple Daily while he is in Shanghai.  "The wall is for those who voluntarily submit to it.  Many kids in the bigger cities have their ways to bypass it."  He sends me this link which offers a number of ways to bypass the wall: http://hostintruder.wordpress.com/2008/07/18/how-to-bypass-blocked-websites/. As the freebies are not very reliable, he and his colleagues are using a paid service called Strong VPN, which allows them to surf the web freely for something like US$7 a month.


I am totally ignorant to Swedish Sami culture.  Thanks to Jonna Wibelius and Internet, I am able to enjoy the lovely music of Sofia Jannok.  Keep the Internet free and unrestricted.

Where have the boys gone?

Was reading the blog of Sally Anderson (founder of Hong Kong Dog Rescue) over the weekend.  1st of May was a big day for Hong Kong Dog Rescue - it was time they had to leave their kennel in Pokfulam and move to their new home in Tai Po.  The big move was filmed and you can watch it on Youtube.  I couldn't help wondering while watching the video:  How come most of the volunteers are girls?  Where have the boy gone?

This book, "Why Boys Fail: "Saving Our Sons from an Educational System That's Leaving Them Behind" got mentioned in the Hong Kong Economic Journal.  Out of curiosity I downloaded a sample from Kindle Store.  Don't like it.  It reads amateurish and contains mostly second-hand information.  Looking for something better to read I found Peg Tyre's "The Trouble with Boys: A Surprising Report Card on Our Sons, Their Problems at School, and What Parents and Educators Must do".  There are a few things in the book that are new to me.  For instance, I never realised that it could be a political issue as such - some "pro-boys" measures are simply perceived as "anti-girls" and strongly opposed by the feminist groups and parents of the high achieving girls.  The whole system, as pointed out by the author, does seem unfair to the boys.  When boys are treated as girls at homes and judged as girls at schools, how can boys not be defective girls?  It is a good read and I recommend it to all parents (not just parents of boys).

A New World

When I had the Kindle in my hands for the first time, I fell in live with it instantly.  As a new convert, I let my wife and daughter try it.  Big mistake.  They privatised it on their first try.  It's true that the Kindle is very limited and capable of only one thing.  But it does what it is supposed to do, and does it really well.  It doesn't look like a book but it feels like one in your hands as you actually use it.  Retiring to the couch with a kindle is as relaxing as reading a book with a bottle of beer and a wide-brimmed straw hat under the sun.  It's the user experience that counts and the Kindle passes with flying colour in that area.  A friend of mine got a Kindle DX for her mother as a present.  She thought it was a crazy and useless gadget but, after trying it for 15 minutes, she was a joyous woman.  After all, having given up reading for over a decade because of failing eyesight, she can now swim in the sea of books.  It's a whole new world for her. 

When the iPad came out many said the iPad was a stupid idea (some still do).   It can't multi-task, it doesn't have Flash and it doesn't exactly do anything a laptop can't do.  But the iPad, like the Kindle, are supposed to be used when you don't need all those serious stuff.  Who need a powerful device that can do serious word-processing, photo-shopping, and multi-tasking when they are enjoying a glass of wine or a bottle of beer in the couch?  If you are supposed to do some serious work, go back to your desk and concentrate on your work.  Forget about Youtube, Flash movies and all the stupid resources-demanding games.   The beauty of the iPad lies in its simplicity and its Do-Not-Bother-Me-with-That attitude.  It breaks away from the the more powerful the better cycle.  Lovely.  Even a 100-year-old computer illiterate can learn to use it.  I have proof.


 

Metro Vocal Group

Not only have these happy gweilos made Hong Kong their base, they are singing Cantonese pop too.

Glass Bottle Recycling

Here in Hong Kong you can find recycling facilities for papers, plastic bottles, dated appliances... but nothing for glass bottles.  The costs of recycling, as it were and was often said, prohibitively high.  Glad to read from today's papers that the Hong Chi Association (a non-profit making organisation to help people with intellectual disabilities) is going to launch a glass bottle recycling campaign.  The only bad news is that they only have one collection point on the island side in stage one, which is far from where I live.  Details here.

It's purely random.

Just finished reading Dance with Chance.  Readable but not nearly as good as Fooled by Randomness.  I am intrigued by a few recently published books like The Greatest Show on Earth, The Lucifer Effect and Outliers.  In these books, numerous examples are given for the power of fate: one's birth date or birth place is more important than his IQ or how hard he works; the performance of a trader depends entirely on his luck; Malcolm Galdwell became Malcolm Galdwell because of an accidental decision on the part of his grand-mum; a killer became a killer because anyone in his situation was doomed to be a killer, evolution is a purely random process...  These books share one common theme: "it is purely random; You cannot plan your own destiny."  Intriguing is it that this anti-heroic theme, which should somehow sound familiar to those who have some exposure to Buddhist and Chinese philosophy, seems to be getting ground in the Western world.  Surely a lot of people will disagree with the notion that talents are over-rated and most of the wealth is undeserved.  Some will argue, "Look at say Warren Buffett. He is one in a billion. You can't explain his success by reference to luck, can you?".  I tend to think the argument from the opposite side has more force: "Given a billion wealth seekers, there is bound to be a person who is going to be the richest amongst the rich, a Warren Buffett."

A few weeks ago I went to the Waterfall Bay again.  The little waterfall there does not even have a name and is now nothing but a trickle (thanks to the Pokfulam Reservoir upstream).  Tiny though, it is a rare example of a waterfall which falls directly into the sea.  The waterfall was of great value to British merchants two centuries ago.  Before Hong Kong became Hong Kong, British merchants en route to Canton used to visit the place to stock up on water.  Attracted to the place, the British decided to make Hong Kong their base in the Far East... And, you know the rest of the history.  If you agree that the rise of China is an important event in modern world history and if you know the importance of Hong Kong in the process, you will agree that this tiny waterfall has indeed changed the world.  But who would have thought that this tiny waterfall was going to change the world?

There is an old painting of the waterfall at the Hong Kong Museum of Art.  Take a look if you happen to be in Hong Kong.  BTW, on the other end of the Waterfall Park you will find hundred of tiny statutes of Chinese goddesses and gods.  They are shinning bright.  I am sure the old ladies are still going there regularly to clean them, to pray to them and ask them to bring peace and fortune to the world.  If you bump into them, slow down and watch them. Watching them you will see a lot of love.

The world is a better place because you are here!

At the end of every school year 2 students (one from primary division and one from secondary) at ISF will be given the "ISF Principal's Award".  The awards are not given according to a long list of assessment criteria.  It is as simple as this: “The ISF Academy is a better place because you are here!”  Love it - simple, elegant, and relevant to everyone.  I wish I could say to everyone that the world is a better place because I'm here.

One Day Some Parents will Employ a Pro to Teach Their Kids to Ride a Bike ...

I jokingly said the above two or three years ago in a meeting of a group of ISF parents.  Seems that it is happening.

My daughter's school is one of those schools in Hong Kong which sadly have become home to some of the more well-off who, feeling insecure 25 (twenty-five) hours a day, are very keen to make available what they think are "the best" to their children.  Here you can find parents who, believing that the sky will collapse if their 8-year-old son does not speak like Sir David Attenborough and their 6-year-old daughter does not sing in the most angelic voice, will pay over US$10,000 to enrol their kids in some "exclusive" Summer programme in the UK and get Teresa Carpio to teach their kids to sing, one-on-one.  This group of parents always tend to moan and complain a lot more than others.  Meeting them for more than a quarter of an hour you will wake up in a cold sweat at night with visions of a house full of the most desperate househusbands and housewives (sometimes, the former may look more desperate than the latter).  At ISF there exist another group of parents - they don't complain about this and that and are more ready to accept things as they are; they don't feed their kids with all the "required" private lessons and don't assess their kids on a daily basis.  And, you know what?  Their kids are happy and turn out just fine.  My daughter is one of the kids who do fairly well at school.  A few months ago I attended the PTA drink gathering at the Red Bar.  A lady parent approached me and asked, "Your girl does not have any extra private tuition and have only two outside school activities? How come she does so well at school?" "People get themselves mixed up with cause and effect," I said, "She does well because she is not burdened with private lessons or too many activities."  My honest answer wouldn't be well received, I knew...

Some parents are determined, very determined to make their own lives, their spouses', their kid's and everybody's lives miserable.  I am determined to stay away from them and stick to the happy ones.  Life is too short to stay close to the negative energy generators.  It's not that they are bad or foolish people.  No, not at all.  In fact, a lot of them are very good people and high achievers in their own fields.  Yet, it seems that they are convinced that they can plan everything and everything should proceed as planned.  They also religiously believe that all the good things are must-haves (or must be offered) and that if they plan well, follow the right method, get the right school, etc., their kids will turn out fine.  Is that so?   Did any of these successful men and women have any of the wonderful must-haves that their kids have?

Turns out that Shakespeare was a psychologist

People prefer choices.  Apparently, if we have many choices and get what we want, we will be happy; if not, we will be unhappy.  But, is happiness out of so called free will or free choice more lasting than what Dan Gilbert called "synthetic happiness"?

"Tis nothing good or bad.  But thinking makes it so" ~ William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare was right, I guess.

Is there sanity in this city?

A round table with 4 men around it and a few empty beer bottles on it.  2 of the men had a wife who was receiving treatment for depression.  The 3rd man had a wife with fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue.  And the 4th man's wife, not on any treatment though, was believed to be the one who needed treatment most.  Sounds like a good beginning for a comical drama.

J.S. Bach and Glenn Gould

Could Bach have imagined, some 200 years after his death, someone would play his music with such passion and devotion?

Concertos of a Troubled Time

A good article from WSJ: Concertos of a troubled time.  Here is a link to one of the works that Gil Shaham is planning to do.

Christian Ferras plays Sibelius Violin Concerto

My favourite version.

First Online Violin Lesson

Had been talking with Vadim for ages about the possibility of online violin lessons.  Finally gave it a try yesterday morning via Skype.  It turned out to be much better than we anticipated.  It was our first try and we were not used to it at the beginning.  But the physical distance and the barrier melted down after 10 mins, thanks to Vadim's extensive experience in teaching.  He made our girl play the C major scale in 3 octaves in different bowings (legato, slurred, at the frog, at the tip, etc.)  After listening to her for a few minutes, he was able to identify the areas that she needed to work on. It was quite something to watch and kind of magical. Vadim had not watched her play for more than 18 months but the lesson was like the continuation of the lesson that they had started the day earlier. They then went through some vibrato exercises and Brahms' Hungarian Dance (No.5).  After about an hour I was called upon.  "I need to give your dad a hard time", Vadim told her.  He then asked me to play the C major scale in 2 octaves (I knew he wouldn't ask me to do 3 octaves) starting in the 2nd position on the A string.  After listening to me, he handed down his prescriptions: bowing exercises, some other bowing exercises, and some more bowing exercises.

Life is good, isn't it?  Thank God (whatever it is) there is internet and there are friends and teachers like Vadim.